Guard for billiard-table-pockets



E. H. ACLAND. GUARD FOR BILLIARDTABLE POCKETS. APPLICATION FILED AUG-25, I920. 1,421,361. Patented J uly 4, 1922.

EDWARD H. ACIAAINDfOF TORONTO;ONTARIOQCANADAV GUARD Fort BILLIARD-TABLE:POCKETS.

Specification of Letters Patent:

Patented 'Ju'ly' 4 ,1922.

Application filed August 25, 1920. Serial No. 405,898.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD H. AoLAND, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of the city of Toronto, county of York, Province of Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Guards for Billiard-Table Pockets, described in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, that form part of the same. 7

The principal objects of the invention are, to improve the method of securing the pockets in place eliminating very objectionable conditions at present existing in the manner of finishing the pockets and obviating the use of materials which will injure the balls.

A further object is to more effectively secure the covering around the pockets and to provide a means for finishing around the pockets which will be extremely neat in appearance.

The principal feature of the invention consists in the novel construction and arrangement of a curved plate bedded around the pocket opening and clamping the table cover and pocket in place.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pocket of a table SllOWiIlg my improved pocket guard.

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view.

In the present methods of trimming around the inner sides of the pockets of billiard tables the cover is drawn down over the bevelled edge of the slate and is tacked to the wooden base. The pocket is usually tacked in position and a leather facing is then placed around the edge of the pocket and secured by tacks. This method is extremely crude and undesirable for many reasons, principally in that the tacks used for fastening the leather facing are injurious in that they deface and chop the balls which may strike the pocket iron a little too hard and bounce back. Further the tacks work loose and the leather becomes displaced and the cover itself cuts rapidly through the action of the balls and through the players inserting their hands into the pockets. Further, when these tacks come out the cover becomes loosened which detrimentally affects the whole surface of the table.

According to the present invention I cut the slate bed 1 perpendicularly instead of bevelling as is usually done. The perpendicular cutting is of course much more simple than the bevelled cutting. The wood bed support 2 is cut preferably in a bevel and of a smaller radius than the cut in the slate, thus leaving a shoulder 3 at the bottom of the slate.

The cover 1 is stretched over the semi-circular cut edge of the slate and is securely tacked at the bottom. to the wood support 2. The upper loops of the pocket 5 are placed in the indented recess 6 formed in the top surface of the shoulder of the bed support and are tacked securely.

A guard member 7 in the form of a segment of a circle is made of fibre, metal or other suitable material and is formed with a straight back 8 adapted to fit the perpendicular cut in the slate. The front surface 9 is bevelled upwardly and rounded off at the top and the under corner 10 is cut away so that .it will allow for any folding of the cover on the back. The guard 7 is secured in place by means of the screws 11 which extend through holes bored in the slate and are threaded into the nuts 12 bedded in the re cesses 13 opening from the underside of the slate, said nuts being securely held in position by the lead bedding 14.

When the screws are tightened down the member 7 fitting snugly into the recess above the shoulder 3 binds the felt tightly into place and also very effectively secures the pocket. The fibre material is smooth, free from any surface obstructions of any kind which would injure the billiard balls bouncing back from the pocket iron. It is extremely neat in appearance and eliminates all the detrimental features of the present construction.

What I claim as my invention is 1. In a billiard table, the combination with the table bed having a curved pocket recess and the table cover, the edge of which is drawn into said recess, of a rigid guard curved to fit into said recess to clamp the cover in place and adapted to rest on the bottom of said recess and to extend upwardly substantially to the level of the table top to protect the cover around the edge of the pocket recess from the impact of balls rebounding from the pocket.

2. In a billiard table, a slate bed having a semi-circular perpendicular recess cut in the edge thereof, a wood bed support forming a bottom to the perpendicular recess in the slate bed, a cover having its edge drawn into the perpendicular recess in the slate bed and secured to the Wood bottom of the bed support, an arc-shaped guard plate triangw" lar in cross section fitting into the recess cut 5 in the slate and resting upon the WOOd'SllP- port and extending upwardly to the top'of the table, said arc-shaped plate having hori 

